Claude Julien
Claude Julien= From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia '''Claude Julien''' (born April 23, 1960) is Canadian professional [[Ice hockey|ice hockey]] [[Head coach|head coach]] of the [[Boston Bruins]] of the [[National Hockey League]] (NHL).[1] He previously served as the head coach for the [[Montreal Canadiens]] and the [[New Jersey Devils]]. In the [[American Hockey League]] (AHL), he coached the [[Hamilton Bulldogs]]. [[[Claude Julien (ice hockey)|edit]]] Playing career Julien was a [[National Hockey League|NHL]] [[Defenseman (ice hockey)|defenseman]] for the [[Quebec Nordiques]] in the 1984 and 1986 seasons.[2] Julien had previously played in the [[Ontario Hockey League]] for the [[Oshawa Generals]] and [[Windsor Spitfires]]. In the [[Central Hockey League]] he played for the [[Salt Lake Golden Eagles]]. In the [[International Hockey League (1945-2001)|IHL]], Julien played for the [[Kansas City Blades]] and the [[Milwaukee Admirals]]. In the [[American Hockey League|AHL]], he played for the [[Fredericton Express]], [[Baltimore Skipjacks]], [[Halifax Citadels]] and [[Moncton Hawks]]. [[[Claude Julien (ice hockey)|edit]]] Coaching career Julien began his professional coaching in the [[Quebec Major Junior Hockey League|QMJHL]] for the [[Hull Olympiques]], with whom he won the [[Memorial Cup]] in 1997. From 2000–2003 he served as head coach for the [[American Hockey League|AHL]] [[Hamilton Bulldogs]]. In 2000, Julien won a bronze medal as the [[Head coach|head coach]] of Canada's national junior ice hockey team. He also served as an assistant coach to [[Marc Habscheid]] at the [[2006 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships]]. On January 17, 2003, Julien became head coach of the [[Montreal Canadiens]]. In 2004, his first full season as an NHL head coach, he led Montreal to a 93 point performance (41–30–7–4 record) and the second round of the playoffs. He was fired and replaced by GM [[Bob Gainey]] on January 14, 2006. Julien accumulated a win-loss-OverTimeLoss-ShootOutLoss record of 72–62–11–14 during his three seasons.[3] Julien was then announced as the head coach of the Devils on June 13, 2006. He was the 15th head coach in Devils history. On October 6, 2006, Julien won his first game as Devils head coach with a 4–0 win against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes. On November 4, 2006, Julien won in his first return to Montreal as the Devils defeated the Canadiens 2–1. On April 2, 2007, the New Jersey Devils abruptly terminated Julien, despite his leading the Devils to a 107-point season (49–24–9 record) and the Atlantic Division championship with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. Devils general manager [[Lou Lamoriello]] replaced Julien, the second straight season in which Lamoriello left the front office to coach the Devils at the end of the season. Lamoriello cited the team's lack of readiness to challenge for the Stanley Cup as his reasoning for firing Julien.[4] The Devils went on to [http://devils.nhl.com/club/gamelog.htm?season=20062007&gameType=3 lose in the Eastern Conference Semifinals] to the Ottawa Senators. On June 22, 2007, it was confirmed by various sports websites that Julien had been named as the 28th head coach of the [[Boston Bruins]]. In his first season as Boston coach, he led the team back to the playoffs. His team struggled with consistency over the course of the season but this was in large part due to the many injuries that plagued the Bruins throughout the 2007–08 season. Most notably, forward [[Patrice Bergeron]] and goaltender [[Manny Fernandez (ice hockey)|Manny Fernandez]] missed almost the entire season. The [[Boston Bruins]] were defeated in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals by the [[Montreal Canadiens]] in seven games. On February 17, 2009, Julien coached his 200th winning NHL game, a 5–1 Bruins road game defeat of the [[Carolina Hurricanes]]. On June 18, 2009, Julien was awarded the [[Jack Adams Award]] as the best coach in the NHL. On May 14, 2010, following an upset win against the Buffalo Sabres in the quarterfinals, the Bruins became only the third NHL team to lose a best-of-seven-series after being up three-games-to-none when they were eliminated by the [[Philadelphia Flyers]] (the other two teams were the 1942 [[Detroit Red Wings]] and the 1975 [[Pittsburgh Penguins]]); Boston held a 3–0 lead in game 7 but the Flyers tied and eventually won the game, 4–3. Injuries to star Bruins forwards [[David Krejci]] (broken wrist), [[Marco Sturm]] (torn ACL), and [[Marc Savard]] (concussion) as well as midseason acquisition defenseman [[Dennis Seidenberg]] (wrist) and an undisclosed injury to former Vezina goaltender [[Tim Thomas (ice hockey)|Tim Thomas]] (hip) that prevented his playing in the series and ultimately required surgery in the offseason, contributed to the defeat. The 2010–2011 season saw Julien coach the Bruins to the 3rd-seed in the NHL Playoffs, and a first-round matchup versus the rival Montreal Canadiens. After dropping the first two games at home, Julien made some lineup adjustments, and helped his team comeback to win the series in 7. In the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Bruins got a chance to redeem themselves from the previous year in a much-anticipated series against the Philadelphia Flyers. After winning Game 1 7–3, they swept the Flyers out of the playoffs. In the Conference Finals, the Bruins faced off against the Tampa Bay Lightning for a chance to go to the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1990. The Bruins came out victorious in 7 games, including wins of 6–5, 2–1, and 1–0. This set the stage for a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, against the number-1 seeded Vancouver Canucks, who possessed the best offense, defense, goaltending, powerplay, and special teams in the NHL, statistically speaking. After a hard-fought game 1, in which the Canucks scored the first goal of the entire game with 18.5 seconds remaining in the 3rd, the Bruins looked to rebound. While skating to a tie after regulation, a costly mistake by captain Zdeno Chara at the beginning of overtime allowed the Canucks to score 11 seconds into the period. Back in Boston, after a rough first period in which the Bruins lost Nathan Horton to an illegal, concussive hit by Vancouver defenseman Aaron Rome, the Bruins exploded for 4 goals in the second and 4 in the third, and a blowout, 8–1 victory. The Bruins followed up the big win with another blowout by romping over the Canucks 4–0, and chasing goalie Roberto Luongo who had given up 12 goals in 5 periods during the two games in Boston. On 15 June 2011, the Boston Bruins won their sixth all-time Stanley Cup championship, with a 4–0 victory in game 7 in Vancouver, BC. Entering the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs, Claude Julien’s career playoff record in game 7’s was 1-3. The 3 losses all came as Boston's coach (vs. Montréal in 2008, Carolina in 2009 and Philadelphia in 2010]. His one game 7 win came in 2004 as Montréal's coach ''against'' Boston. With the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoff game 7 wins against Montréal, Tampa Bay and Vancouver, Julien improved to 4-3. Also in the 2011 playoffs, Julien (now with 33 wins) passed Don Cherry (31 wins) for the most playoff wins by a Boston Bruins coach. On 17 Dec 2011, Claude Julien collects his 200th regular season win as Boston's coach in a 6-0 whitewash of the conference leading Flyers. The win completed a Bruin 41-day journey from the absolute bottom of the Eastern Conference to a tie at the top. [[[Claude Julien (ice hockey)|edit]]] Personal life Julien and his wife Karen reside in [[Lexington, Massachusetts]]. He is [[Bilingual|bilingual]], speaking both French and English. [[[Claude Julien (ice hockey)|edit]]] Coaching record=